


Kia Kaha

by YourGirlJames



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe, F/F, Graphic Description, Possible Character Death, Rugby
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2020-12-13 20:16:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21003548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YourGirlJames/pseuds/YourGirlJames
Summary: Troubled Rugby Player, Ashlyn Harris is sent to a Juvenile Detention Centre after a post game party leads to an accident.While there, Ashlyn is forced to play for her old teams rivals.Will the new team put Ashlyn on the right path, or will her need for approval from her father, and the influence of old teammates ruin her life?Loosly based on the movie "Forever Strong"





	1. Dangerous Play

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work on AO3 so please bare with me. I'm a full time student so I'm not sure how regular my updates will me.
> 
> This story is roughly based on the movie "Forever Strong" but if you haven't seen it it won't effect you enjoying this story. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Ashlyn was pissed. Like seriously pissed. Her team was 28-7 down and they were 65 minutes into the game. Unlikely to make a comeback. She snuck a glance at her father while her team set up for the next scrum, standing next to the bench holding his play book and he did not look impressed. This only pissed Ashlyn off more. 

“Engage!”

Ashlyn’s head snapped back towards the scrum only to see Highland’s dark-haired scrumhalf collecting the ball from the collapsing scrum. The scrum half ran with the ball towards a gap that Ashlyn hadn’t noticed between herself on the wing, and her best friend Heather Mitts, playing centre. She knew if she didn’t stop this girl by any means necessary, Highland would surely score again. She made a decision, fuelled by her rage at the state of the game, and her father’s unimpressed face. 

She charged towards the scrumhalf. Raising her arm slightly above the dark-haired girl’s shoulders to wrap around her neck. The girl got slammed back onto the ground, losing the ball. 

Ashlyn almost felt proud. 

Almost.

Two things happened. One of the Highland forwards, a massive girl also with dark hair, grabbed Ashlyn’s jersey, shoving her for the dangerous tackle that had taken out her scrum half. Before Ashlyn could do more than get up in the larger girl’s face, one of her players was trying to pull her back, while 2 of the Highland players, a smaller girl with short blonde hair and a freckled girl, tried to pull away their teammate. 

“You idiot you could have seriously hurt her!” the Highland player shouted.

“Come on I barely touched her,” Ashlyn scoffed with a smirk, daring her opposing player to come at her again.  
Ashlyn’s smirk was wiped off her face and replaced by an outraged expression when the ref blew his whistle, holding up a red card in her face.

“Dangerous tackle! You’re done!” he called, already turning around to resume play.

“What are you talking about!” Ashlyn yelled, outraged. “That’s bullshit man I was barely above her shoulders!”

“Get off my field Harris!” the ref yelled, gesturing to the side-line.

Ashlyn stormed over to the bench, her anger building even further the closer she got. When she got there, her father looked at her with disappointment in his eyes. Not disappointment that she’d been sent off. No. just disappointment that she wasn’t good enough to win. She knew that. She knew that because that’s what was drilled into her head every training session. Every dinner after a game, whether they’d won or not, it was always about how Ashlyn hadn’t done well enough. Hadn’t scored enough. Just wasn’t enough. And she knew that game would be worse, because not only had they lost, but Ashlyn hadn’t scored at all. 

One look at her father’s face was all it took to make Ashlyn snap. She kicked over the bench, sending bags and warm up clothing flying. She grabbed her bag, not sparing her father a second glance, and stalked off towards the locker rooms. 

She sat down on the bench in front of her locker, utterly defeated. 

*******

A few hours later, Ashlyn was feeling a lot better. At least, that’s what the alcohol and the pretty girl on her lap told her. She was a lot happier according to them. She was at a party at Heather’s house. A large portion of her team were hanging around the pool, completely wasted. These parties were a tradition with her team, the Razorbacks. If they won, they went over the Heather’s house and got wasted. If they lost, they went over to Heather’s house and got fucked.

That night was a blur to Ashlyn. She drank even more than she usually would, trying to forget the dangerous tackle, the red card, and her father’s face. When the girl on her lap, Tori, who was also very drunk, suggested they get out of there, Ashlyn didn’t even think twice.  
Next thing she was in her car, driving down the highway with the top down and the music blaring, with Tori’s hand in her lap, occasionally leaning over to kiss her. She didn’t remember what exactly happened next.

That’s the curse of being intoxicated.

She also wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to remember exactly what happened. One second they’re driving along, having a good time, the next she sees a bright light coming towards her. She swerved out of the way, only then realising she was in the middle of the road. The process of swerving out the way took them off the road and through the fence on the edge of the field. The card shot down the steep hill, stopping only when it hit a tree. 

Ashlyn woke up, unsure of how long she’d been out. Her head pounded where it had slammed into the steering wheel, there was blood all over the dashboard from her nose, that she presumed had broken. She looked over to the passenger seat to check on Tori, only to see she wasn’t there.

“Tori?” she called in a panic, as loud as her raw throat and aching chest would allow.

She turned around, and the image she saw was one she knew would be seared into her memory until she died.

She saw Tori. Covered in blood. Caught on the barbs of the razor wire fence that Ashlyn had driven them through.


	2. New Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ashlyn realised her first day in her new home could have gone a lot better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In a fit of procrastination I bashed out chapter 2. Hope you guys enjoy it.

The trial was as easy as they get. Open and close.

Ashlyn took the advice of her lawyer and pleaded guilty. The final day of the trial saw Ashlyn sitting next to her lawyer, Doug Tate, wearing a neat grey suit in a stuffy courtroom.

Aside from them the room was almost empty. The only other people besides the prosecutor and judge was Ashlyn’s mother and grandma. She wished her gran hadn’t come. She didn’t want to see the look of disappointment in her eyes. But she supposed she deserved it. Her father hadn’t even bothered to come, not that Ash expected anything different.

“Ashlyn Michelle Harris,” the judge said when he returned to the court room.

Doug stood, gesturing to Ashlyn to do the same, to hear his final verdict.

“She prefers Ash, your honour,” Doug stated, completely unnecessarily in Ashlyn’s opinion.

“She pleaded guilty to DUI and reckless endangerment counsellor, she’s fresh out of what ‘she prefers’”

Apparently, the judge agreed with Ashlyn.

“In the case of Ashlyn Harris versus the state of Florida, I hereby find the defendant guilty of DUI and reckless endangerment. As this is not the defendant’s first offence, I sentence her to a year in juvenile detention, a minimum of 6 months to be served before parole is considered.”

And with that and a final bang of his stupid wooden hammer, Ashlyn lost her freedom.  
****  
There’s always kids at school talking about juvie. For some, getting sent to juvenile hall is a badge of honour. They barely even consider it prison. But that’s what it is. 

Prison.

Ashlyn doubted that any of the people that bragged about being sent had actually ever stepped foot in one, but they sure had one thing wrong. They all spoke about it like they were in prisons like you see in the movies. Rows and rows of barred cells with shitty bunk beds and stainless-steel toilets. They were wrong.

While the manager of the detention centre was walking her around to show her the facility, she couldn’t help thinking that it looked more like a boarding school than a prison. Her wonderings were answered for her by the manager before she could ask, not that she was going to.

“You must remember that the purpose of juvenile detention isn’t punishment, but rather rehabilitation. We want the kids that come through our facility to leave better people,” the manager, Marcus, stated as he showed her to her room.

The room was very basic, with just a bed, desk and wardrobe, but it was infinitely better than what she had expected. 

She wished she could feel anything like relief that it wasn’t as bad as she’d imagined, but all she felt was the same numbness she’d been feeling since she saw Tori on that fence. She still hadn’t gotten the chance to speak to Tori. Her mother hadn’t let her call or go visit, but Ashlyn supposed that was understandable. She just wanted to tell her how sorry she was. 

She put her Razorbacks tog bag down on the bed and looked around the room in silence.

“Please be open to cooperating with our program Ash,” Marcus spoke as he was leaving. “It will make your stay here a lot more worthwhile.”

Ash watched him leave, still blank. She looked around her room before standing up and grabbing her bag, carrying it across the room to her closet. The centre had a set uniform of grey sweats and black t-shirts with “Salt Lake Juvenile Detention” written on it in white. They were, however, allowed to bring a few sets of personal clothing, such as their own workout clothing and pyjamas. Ash was thankful for this, as working out was an escape for her, and working out in her own clothes might make her feel more normal than state-issued attire. 

She threw on a pair of shorts and a muscle tee that showed off the tattoo on her bicep, the start to what she was planning on making a full sleeve at some point. She left the room and walked towards the gym that Marcus had shown her on the walk through. It was fairly basic, with just a few sets of free weights, a couple treadmills and a pair of rowing machines. She knew there was a field outside with a track and a few basketball courts, but the weights would do for now. 

She needed to work off some steam.

2 hours later, Ash was exhausted covered in a film of sweat as she made her way back towards her room to grab her things to go shower. The workout had made her feel a tad better, but she knew it would take a while before she felt like herself again. 

Back in her room, Ashlyn gathered her towel and toiletry bag and walked towards her door, only to find her path blocked by 2 blondes. One tall-ish with longer hair tied in a messy bun, the other average height with short hair similar to Ashlyn’s but spikier.

“Hey newbie,” the tall-ish blonde spoke, with a bit of a weird accent. 

“What you in for?” the shorter one asked, also with a foreign accent. 

Ash eyed them warily, not sure if these 2 were to be her friends or her enemies.

“See I told Janine here that you’re probably in here for something weak ass like stealing girl scout cookies,” the tall one continued, smirking. “Janine agrees you’re probably weak ass but reckons you probably just j-walked one too many times.”

Ashlyn started getting irritated. An entire life of being told you’re not good enough makes a person dislike being called weak. She tried to walk away from them, but the fact that the 2 of them were hovering around her door made it difficult. 

“I don’t want to start shit so please just fuck off and let me past,” Ash said when they didn’t move.

“Hey now we don’t like being disrespected like that, do we Hannah?” the shorter one, Janine said with a frown.

“No, we do not,” replied Hannah, stepping closer to Ashlyn. “I think the newbie needs to learn some manners.” 

And with that, Hannah pushed Ashlyn, and with that push, unlocked all the anger Ashlyn had suppressed over the last few days.   
Next thing, the three of them are rolling around the passage floor trading blows and staff members were rushing to pull them apart.

Looking back at it, Ashlyn realised her first day in her new home could have gone a lot better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise it will lighten up eventually.


	3. "I only play Rugby"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Her first thought was what the fuck were they doing here. Her second thought was that the scrum half was absolutely breath taking.

Ashlyn was once again reminded of a boarding school. 

After breaking up the fight with Hannah and Janine, they were sent to medical to get checked up. Ashlyn was a little battered, with a split lip and the beginnings of a black eye already forming. But she definitely came out of it looking better than both the others. Hannah had a broken nose that had to be reset, and Janine had sprained her wrist quite badly. 

That, however, wasn’t the part of the whole ordeal that reminded Ashlyn of school. No, it was sitting on a hard chair outside Marcus’ office, waiting to receive whatever punishment she had earned. His secretary, a jolly looking fat man who appeared to be of Hawaiian decent, kept typing away on his computer behind the window of his side office. He had been very friendly in greeting Ashlyn, acting as if they were lifelong friends. An act that had irritated Ashlyn to the point that she’d sent him such a harsh glare that he had not uttered another word since, after his “Just being friendly girl, no need to send them death rays my way.”

Eventually, she was called into the office, where she proceeded to sit in dead silence in front of Marcus while he typed on his computer…

Just when Ashlyn was getting incredibly annoyed, he spoke.

“That was quite the first impression,” he said, without looking up. “When I said you should cooperate with our program, that is definitely not what I meant.”

“They started it,” Ashlyn grumbled.

“I’m pretty sure they did, but I’m also pretty sure there were ways you could have dealt with the situation without it becoming violent. You need to keep that anger in check, or your stay here will be most unpleasant.”

He said that as if it was meant to be a pleasant experience to be locked away.

“Because it’s your first day, I’m going to go easy on you, but I want you to start attending the daily anger management class after lunch.”

Ashlyn rolled her eyes and sighed.

“Yeah okay,” she said, knowing arguing would be pointless.

“You can go now.”

Ashlyn stood, turning towards the door.  
“Hang on Ash you’ll need this,” Marcus called as she started walking away.

Ash turned back around to see him holding up a bucket full of cleaning sprays and cloths.

“You’ll be cleaning the second-floor bathrooms every day for the next 2 weeks. I said I’d go easy on you, not that you’d get off scot free. Enjoy your evening.”

Ash grabbed the bucket and stormed out, glaring at the fat Hawaiian as he chuckled at her.  
***  
Days turned into weeks. Hannah and Janine didn’t actively start anything with Ashlyn again, but there was always tension. But Ashlyn kept to herself. Doing schoolwork in her room, working out as often as she could and occasionally going outside to stand by the fence and look out. There was always a group of girls playing games of pickup football, but Ashlyn never joined. She hated American football. And even if she didn’t, Hannah and Janine were always playing, and Ashlyn knew that conflict would start if she joined. So, she kept to herself.

Until, one day, she was dragged into it. 

She was standing by the fence again, her back facing the football game, when suddenly a ball hit her in the back of the head. She heard chuckles and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down as she turned around.

“You too good to play ball?” Hannah called out with a smirk. “You always just standing there. You think you to good to chuck a ball around with us?”

“Nah Han,” Janine added with a chuckle. ”I reckon she’s too scared to join.”

“Come on Florida!” Hannah called out. “We’ll even switch to playing touch if you’re too scared.”

There it was again. Being called scared. Being called weak. 

Ashlyn picked up the ball. It was almost the same shape as the rugby balls she sorely missed.  
She looked up at Hannah and called out.  
“I only play rugby.”  
***  
A few minutes later, in a turn of events that she never could have predicted, Ashlyn was standing in front of the group of football girls.

“Okay so the first rule of rugby is that you can only pass backwards,” Ashlyn explained. “Like this.”

She turned slightly and performed a perfect rugby pass that hit an unprepared Janine in her abdomen, slightly winding her. She looked up with a frown but nodded for Ash to continue.

“There are no huddles, no switching teams when you switch from offense to defence, and play only stops if the ball goes out, someone scores, or someone’s dying,” Ashlyn added with a smirk of her own.

“So, it’s kinda like football and soccer,” one of the other girls stated.

“It’s kinda like rugby,” Ashlyn stated, matter-of-factly. “You go stand there with the ball.”

She indicated the edge of the field, the proceeded to set the 2 teams into a crude assemblage of a line out.

“Now you’re gonna start play by throwing the ball between the 2 lines of players. Someone catches it and we can start.”

The girls got ready, Ashlyn taking the wing position for her team, the one with the ball tossed it between the lines and a girl in the other team caught it, immediately passing it to Hannah, who had also taken the wing position. 

She began running towards her team’s touch line, and Ashlyn got ready. She bent her knees slightly, the joy of playing all coming back to her, and she watched Hannah, getting ready for the tackle. Hannah clearly didn’t think Ashlyn was much of a threat because she didn’t even try run around her.

Ashlyn stepped slightly to her left, lining up perfectly and wrapping her arms around Hannah’s waist, driving herself forward and bringing Hannah down in a winding tackle.

Ashlyn later reflected that during that short game, it was the happiest she’d felt since getting to Salt Lake.

***

The next day, Ashlyn got called into Marcus’s office. As she was walking there, she was wracking her brain to figure out what she had done wrong that time. She nodded to the fat Hawaiian, whose name she had learnt, was Kobe. 

“Go right in Florida, boss man is waiting for you,” Kobe said happily.

Ashlyn walked into the office, already beginning her defence.

“Listen Marcus whatever it is you think I did-“  
Ashlyn cut herself off when she saw there were other girls in the room. Other girls that she recognized, but who were not prisoners.

Standing there were 3 of Highland’s rugby players. The big brunette that had gotten in Ashlyn’s face, the short-haired blonde that had tried to pull her off, and the scrumhalf that Ashlyn had cheap shotted during their last game. 

Her first thought was what the fuck were they doing here. Her second thought was that the scrum half was absolutely breath taking.

“Ashlyn these are Hope, Megan and Ali from Highland rugby club,” Marcus explained.

“I know who they are,” Ashlyn replied, frowning at him. “I want to know why they’re here.”

“Well I saw you playing outside yesterday, and you looked happier than you’ve looked since getting here. Now, Coach Gelwix is a personal friend of mine and I think playing for him would really benefit you.”

Ashlyn didn’t immediately click what he meant, but as soon as she did, she was not impressed.

“No. Absolutely not.”

“Told you jailbait wouldn’t go for it,” the tall brunette, Hope, said smugly.

“Watch it,” Ashlyn growled, angrily taking a step closer. “Don’t come in here acting like you’re better than me.”

“Wow,” Hope laughed. “Hate to break it to you, but we are better than you, and we’ve proven that.”

The reference to their last game made Ashlyn even angrier.

She took another step towards Hope, only to be stopped by the blonde, Megan.

“Watch it tough guy,” she laughed, but not in a condescending way. “We’re just here to help.”

“I don’t want your help.”

“Ashlyn come on,” Marcus spoke on. “If you go play for them, I can give you passes to leave for practises and games, I promise it will be good for you. At the very least you’ll get out for a few hours a week and you’ll be playing again, and for the best club in the country on top of that.”

“They aren’t that good,” Ashlyn ground out.

“Good enough to beat you,” Ali said quietly, speaking for the first time. “At the very least you’d be able to how we do it.”

She said all this with a confident smirk, daring Ashlyn to challenge her.

“Pass,” Ashlyn grumbled as she stormed out the office.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm quite proud of this chapter, it's a bit longer than the first 2. And as yall can see we're building up to Ashlyn's life turning around.


	4. Worse case scenario...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I just thought getting the chance to play again would be good for you.”
> 
> “I would rather stay locked up here than go play for them,” Ash responded bitterly.

Ashlyn wasn’t even sure where she was going after she stormed out. She just knew she couldn’t stay in that office with those players. She knew it wasn’t fair, but a part of her blamed them for her ending up here. The small part of her reasoned that if it weren’t for them, she wouldn’t have been ejected from a game, wouldn’t have lost and therefore wouldn’t have gotten angry enough to get as drunk as she did. And if that hadn’t happened, she would have been smart enough not to drive. 

A larger part of her knew that wasn't fair. She knew she drank after every game, regardless of the outcome. The larger part knew that her getting ejected was entirely her own fault. But she chose to ignore the large part in favour of the smaller. The smaller part allowed her to believe that it's not her fault her life's a mess. 

Next thing she knew, Ash was sitting on a table in the courtyard by the basketball court. She was angry. All the anger that she’d been feeling was bubbling to the surface. Anger at the court for sending her here, anger at Marcus for bringing the highland players, anger at her father for a host of reasons. And anger at herself for getting into this mess. 

She felt a presence join her at the table.

She looked up and saw Marcus sitting there. 

“Why did seeing them make you that angry Ash?” Marcus asked, with concern evident in his voice.

Ash ignored him. Internally she thought the man must be really stupid if he thought she’d take seeing them any differently. 

“I’m sorry it upset you,” he continued. “I just saw you out there the other day and it’s the first time I’ve seen you look so calm since you’ve got here. It was the first time I saw the anger leave your face. I just thought getting the chance to play again would be good for you.”

“I would rather stay locked up here than go play for them,” Ash responded bitterly. 

Ashlyn knew that as disappointed in her as her father was, he’d never forgive her if she went to play for Highland. His hatred for the team and their coach, Larry Gelwix, extended beyond team rivalry for some reason that was still unknown to her.

“You know Ash, I know you haven’t been attending the anger management classes like I asked you to. You’re getting into fights, keeping to yourself and there’s always this anger about you,” Marcus continued. “I don’t really see you trying to get better. As I told you, this is primarily a rehabilitation centre, not a prison. I asked you to try cooperate with our program and you haven’t been doing that.”

Ash wasn’t sure where the man was going with this, but if he was trying to guilt her into playing for highland, it wouldn’t work.

“What’s your point?” Ash asked quietly.

“The judge’s decision to release you early is based almost entirely on my recommendation.” He said with a pointed look. “And you’re going to have to work a lot harder to earn that, because at this point, I don’t think you’ve learnt anything.”

Ash knew exactly what he was saying now. He was essentially saying that playing for Highland could be her ticket out of here.

“Look at the back of your closet sometime,” Marcus said with a small sigh as he stood up and walked away.

Puzzled, Ashlyn stood up and walked off as well.

Ashlyn made her way straight to her room, curious and puzzled about Marcus’s strange instruction. What on earth could be so important about the back of her closet? Surely if there was something worth seeing she would have seen it by now.

A few minutes later she stood in front of her closet. With slight trepidation she opened the doors, reaching in to slide her clothes across the rail so she could see the back of it. And she immediately saw what Marcus had wanted her to see.   
There, carved into the back surface of her closet, were hatch marks. A lot of hatch marks. As if someone was counting something that was clearly important enough to them that they kept at it. They probably never expected someone to count them. Hell, they probably didn’t even mean for someone to see them.

But Ashlyn saw them. And Ashlyn counted them. All 372 of them.

“372,” Ashlyn stated from her place standing at Marcus’s office door later that evening. She was confused about why that had been important. She understood that it was probably some previous occupant counting the days of their sentence, but she didn’t know what Marcus had hoped to achieve by showing them to her. Maybe it was meant to scare her? To show that doing a full year was a serious possibility and early release was not? So, she came looking for answers.

Marcus was packing his briefcase, presumably to go home for the night. But he stopped as soon as she spoke.   
“I carved one of those a day when I was 17,” he stated quietly, looking up at her.

Ash stayed silent, processing the surprising revelation.

“So, I know what you’re going through Ash, believe me. I also had a rough childhood. But I turned my life around, and so can you if you are willing to actually try.”

“How?” was all Ashlyn wanted to know. How could someone actually turn their life around.

“Everything I learnt that helped me,” Marcus started to explain calmly. “I learnt playing rugby for Highland and Coach Gelwix when he still coached the men’s team”

Another surprising revelation rendering Ash silent.

“I wouldn’t have suggested you going to play for them if I didn’t genuinely believe it would help you Ash. Especially considering the rivalry between your team and them. But please. I know he’ll be able to help you onto the right track if you just give them a chance.”

Ashlyn thought about it. Genuinely thought about it. And she made a decision. Worst case scenario, her father would hate her for playing for Gelwix, and her sentence doesn’t get shortened. But she was pretty sure he hated her already. And even if that happened, she’d still get to leave the prison a few hours a week. And worse case scenario she’d be spending the full year in the prison anyways, so may as well try if it got her back to playing the sport she loved.

Maybe her luck would change, and it would actually work out for her.

“Okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry my update took so long, I've been going through some stuff. Will try update more regularly but I'm not gonna make promises I might not be able to keep.
> 
> Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!


End file.
